Kail in the Big Apple – New York Comic Con Day 1 Recap

Yesterday was the first day of the New York Comic Con, and while I wasn’t able to see everything, I did get to see some pretty cool things! Cosplayers, upcoming games, internet celebrities, pretzels (that I didn’t get to enjoy), and co-workers from my old job at Blockbuster. Lemme give you a run down of how yesterday went, and what articles you can expect me to write within the next few days.

I got out of my real job at 3 and quickly got changed in the bathroom and rushed out the door to catch the bus to the city, I live in New Jersey so the bus ride is only about 20 minutes and then walking to the Javitz center is another 20. So I get to the Javitz center around 4 and I don’t even know where to begin. First thing’s first, I need to pick up my press pass! I head to the front booth and ask where the press office is, and a girl tells me “it’s down that way, you’ll see it, it’s a big red booth”. I get to the big red booth and talk to the girl there, she asks for my name and I show her my I.D. and she goes “and which exhibition are you with?” and I go “Capsule Computers, but I’m press, we’re not exhibiting.” She looks at me and goes “Oh! Then you want the Press Office!”

Well, that’s where I thought I was! So I ask her for directions and she points me in the opposite direction, and off I go. I finally get to the office after all this confusion and this nice fellow asks me for my I.D. and I give it to him and he checks me off the list and gives me my pass, and off I go for real this time!

I get into the convention center, and when I tell you I didn’t know where to begin, I wasn’t lying. Because I had gotten there late (press was allowed in at 10, I couldn’t get out of work so I got in at 4), I had missed the opportunity to avoid crowds to play the latest games. That’s okay, I got to see a lot being played and let me tell you they look cool!

I started with Capcom, shook hands with the guys from Capcom-Unity, showed them my Capcom-Unity Debit Card which I still carry around with me even though the service has been discontinued. I got to see Mega Man Universe first hand, didn’t get to play it yet, hopefully today or tomorrow, but it looks cool, especially for an XBLA/PSN game. Think Mega Man meets Little Big Planet, it works pretty well. Then I saw, of course, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. Let me tell you, the videos you watch online do it no justice. In person it’s REALLY cool. I didn’t have time to play it, hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll play it, I doubt I’ll be able to get in today, the crowds were too huge yesterday. Took a peak at Bionic Commando ReArmed 2, didnt get to see much, but it seemed like a more improved version of the first one with more to do, looks awesome, I’ll definitely pick that one up.

Next up was SEGA, I went over and first thing I played was Sonic Colors. I’m a huge Sonic fan, an incredibly picky Sonic fan at that, and if you know me or my music than you already know that. People on the internet have been following the infamous “Sonic Cycle” to the T over this game. It wasn’t that I was disappointed by it, but it didn’t sell me on the idea that it was the savior of 3D Sonic games. Take the daytime levels from Sonic Unleashed and add some power-ups and that’s what Sonic Colors is. The way the game’s meant to be played is you have to follow the directions the designers laid out, if you’re running forward, you have to just hold forward, you move slightly and Sonic loses momentum and slows down and it gets jumbly. It’s full of quick time events and high speed “press this to do this” moments, and really it’s like it plays itself. It was kind of cool because they did fix some of the problems with it, but in actuality a bad concept is a bad concept. The game isn’t awful, it’s just not going to be what everyone’s been wanting from Sonic. I believe Sonic 4 is what the fans want, not Sonic Colors, but Sonic Colors DID look really good for a Wii game. My number one gripe about it though, besides the gameplay, was while it looked good, it had too many jaggies. If it was on Xbox 360 or PS3 it would’ve looked stunning. But enough on that, let’s keep moving.

After I played some games, I looked at my phone and saw I had to run because I had requested an interview with YouTube sensation and fellow video game music parodist Brentalfloss, so I quickly ran to his booth. When I got there, he was doing signings for some fans, I asked him if I could get the interview in real quick and he said things were pretty slow, so he’d give me a few words then. I unfortunately forgot my digital audio recorder, so I had to use my phone and film it! I plan on transcribing the interview and posting it at a later time, but I’ll tell you right now Brentalfloss is one of the coolest guys in video game culture. He’s very down to earth, good natured, loves talking to fans and signing autographs, he’s an all around great guy.

After interviewing Flossman I ran into some old friends from when I worked at Blockbuster, we went and checked out the DC Animated Universe panel and I was totally bushed from everything and just sat back and watched some cartoons. Slacking on the job? Absolutely, but don’t tell Phil!

Anyhoo, as I got out of the panel the day was pretty much over, so I went out with my friends and got dinner and then went home and went straight to bed to prep myself for work this morning, and then Comic Con Day 2 as soon as I get out of work! Today I hope to play more games, get more swag, and score with gurlz (a guy can dream can’t he?).

Howdy y'all,
The name's Chris, though I'm known far and wide among the internet as Kail, nerd-musician known for the Sonic 2 parody "Tails is Hot" and the Jim Jones/Led Zeppelin parody "Ballway to Heaven". I'm currently working on a graphic novel called "Destroy All Slackers" that I hope to publish by the end of the year.
I started playing video games at the age of 2 with my mom's Sega Master System, and I could never get past the first boss in Alex Kidd in Miracle World. As I grew older, I moved up with Sega Genesis, then Nintendo 64, then Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2, Xbox, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. I'm a big retro gamer, but I love my PS3 and Wii dearly.
I'm a friendly guy, maybe we can be friends? Probably not? Well okay I see how it is.